Claire Butler, far right, at the opening of the Sainsbury Micklegate store

Assistant manager of the new Sainsbury’s Local store on Micklegate, York, Claire Butler, is walking from the store to Scarborough over this coming weekend to raise money for the Wilberforce Trust. Leaving the store at 10.00am on Sunday morning (2 March), Claire is intending to arrive in Malton by the evening then, after a good night’s rest at the Ham and Cheese Country Inn in the nearby village of Scagglethorpe, will continue to Scarborough, aiming to arrive on the beach by evening on Monday.

The Micklegate store, which opened in December, chose Wilberforce as one of its charities of the year and has already donated around £1,500, part of this going towards a new sensory room, due to be opened soon in the Wilberforce Living&Learning Zone at the charity’s headquarters in Huntington. Claire was part of the team from the store which raised £1,000 with a bucket collection last year.

The walk will take Claire past the Wilberforce headquarters on North Moor Road, Huntington, on her way to Malton on Sunday morning.

Claire will be accompanied by a colleague from a Sainsbury’s store in Scarborough, Zoe Shillingford, who will be raising money for her chosen charity, the SSAFA, which supports Forces personnel and their families.

The pairing of the charities supported by Claire and Zoe’s walk seems appropriate. Wilberforce is, of course, York’s oldest charity, having been supporting people with sight loss in North Yorkshire since 1833; the SSAFA is Britain’s oldest military support charity, having been formed in 1885.